The United States cannot "carry the world economy" on “its back, President Barack Obama said Saturday, as the G20 readies an action plan that could boost growth prospects for rich and poor nations alike.

The United States cannot "carry the world economy" on “its back, President Barack Obama said Saturday, as the G20 readies an action plan that could boost growth prospects for rich and poor nations alike.

Leaders of the world's top industrial economies are meeting in Brisbane to nail down ways to boost their combined growth by at least two trillion dollars via domestic policy reforms, and so generate millions of new jobs.

"Over the last few years the US has put more people back to work than all other advanced economies combined," he said on the sidelines of the summit, with the US unemployment rate falling to 5.8 percent in October, its lowest level since July 2008.

"But America can't be expected to just carry the world economy on our back.
"So here in Brisbane the G20 has a responsibility to act, to boost demand and invest more in infrastructure and create good jobs for the people of all our nations."

The G20 leaders were initially expected to sign off on a vow to lift growth by two percent over the currently projected level in the next five years.

But a draft copy of the Brisbane Action Plan said that, owing to worries about sluggish conditions worldwide, the leaders will agree to reforms that could accelerate growth by 2.1 percent.

"We have developed comprehensive growth strategies that address these challenges," the plan says, according to The Australian newspaper.

"Analysis by the IMF and OECD indicates that full implementation of these strategies will lift our collective GDP by 2.1 percent through to 2018 above the trajectory implied by the policies at the time of the St Petersburg summit (last year)."